Mastercard Base Case

Mastercard thinks it can catch up to Visa. Its latest weapon: analytical tools it develops for credit card issuers.

Mastercard Base Case

Headquarters: 2000 Purchase Street, Purchase, NY 10577

Phone: (914) 249-2000

Business: Association of banks that issue charge cards, marketer of credit and debit card brands, provider of transaction network

Chief Information Officer: Jerry McElhatton, senior executive vice president, global technology and operations

Financials: $1.5 billion in revenue, $118.1 million in net income; 7.5% net profit margin, all 2000. $986 billion in transaction volume, 2001

Challenge: Find ways to turn managers of credit card portfolios at small, medium and large banks into "preferred partners,'' pushing MasterCard brand products instead of Visa brand

BASELINE GOALS:

• Improve market share, from 31.6% of credit card business
• Store 36 months of transaction data from all members, on a rolling basis
• Increase daily volume, beyond 30 million transactions a day
• Beat current annual growth rate of 17.6% in dollar volume of transactions handled